Caffeinated Cakery

We clearly show a great preference to cooking with alcohol over our second favorite drug, caffiene, and its carrier, coffee. This is a perplexing fact because we imbibe coffee over beer in overly unfair ratios. We drink coffee all day (really, at all times, right now too) every day, yet it rarely shows up in our recipes. Of course, one of the best things about coffee is its ability to stand on its own and, like beer, it can be a tricky ingredient to ultilize in the kitchen.

But with the recent visit of our fave vegan baker (Portland’s ever crushable Jac Delorey) we decided to embark on some test runs of a first great departure point for Caffeinated Cookery: the coffee cake. Coffee Cake, by definition, rarely has actual coffee incorporated into it and is rather meant to accompany your cup-o-joe. We begged to differ. Armed with a pound of Handsome Coffee Roaster’s Don Medardo from Santa Barbara (Honduras) and a fistfull of Kapow Bars that Jac smuggled down from the Northwest, we hit the batter and won.

This recipie is definitivly not vegan. Actually, the vegan version that resulted from our face-off is also quite crushable it just needs some coaxing. We might’ve been a little too hungover and not amped on beans enough to pull off the right counterpart, but we think a simple switcheroo of soaked flax seeds for eggs, veganaise for sour cream makes a pretty awesome facsimilie of this fluffy bean bomb. The end result had plenty of depth from the extract-like power of the Kapow, while exhibiting sweet caramel-y, smokey bitterness form the extra addition of the coffee. While this cake totally fit the traditional mold, it had a Cafe Au Lait vibe that was destictively caffinated and gave us the shakes. In a Good way. Expect us to slip coffee into everything in 2012.

Tip: When baking with coffee treat your beans properly and be gentle. Slow extraction using a chemex is ideal, and if you let the brew come down to room temperature, you’ll tease out a lot more flavor than if you use it when its hot.

Cake
1 and 1/2 sticks unsalted butter (room temp)
1 Kapow! coffee bar
3 good eggs
3/4 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon homemade vanilla extract
2 and 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon sea salt

Topping
1/2 stick unsalted butter (room temp)
plus 2 tablespoons butter for greasing
1 cup walnut pieces (raw)
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla salt
1 teaspoon choice coffee grounds
a slosh of brewed coffee

1. Brew a pot of coffee to drink throughout the process.

2. Measure out the flour, sea salt and baking soda and then sift together into a large bowl. Set ‘em aside. Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees.

3. Double-boil your bar: Sit a non-plastic mixing bowl on top of a sauce pot filled with a couple cups of water and place on medium heat. Once approaching a low boil, break the bar into pieces and drop into the bowl. Whisk to create a coffee syrup. Turn heat off and let stay warm until ready to use.

4. In another large bowl, beat/mash/fork the room temp butter with your white sugar (gently heat the butter if it’s still chilled). Slowly crack one egg at a time into this and whisk thoroughly. Ditto the vanilla extract. Add the coffee syrup too (warm but not hot). Finally, add the dry ingredients to this one-third at a time, alternating with scoops of sour cream, until all is combined as a smooth batter. Add a generous slosh of brewed coffee from your mug (about 1/4 cup to loosen the batter) and stir.

4. Mix the topping: Mash together the brown sugar with the remaining half stick of butter. Chop the walnut pieces into rough chunks and mix them in to form a crumble. Add cinnamon, vanilla salt and coffee grounds.

5. Use a spring form pan (8-10 inch diameter) to bake. Generously grease the pan with an extra tablespoon of butter or spray oil. Dust the pan with a teaspoon or so of flour to help from sticking. Pour your batter into the pan and smooth the top with a spatula. Add the crumble on top. Slice your remaining tablespoon of butter into 5 pieces. Plunk on top of cake.

6. Slide cake into the oven and cook for about 25 minutes on 350. Spin the cake and cook for another 20 to 25 minutes, until firm but only slightly brown on top.

Beverage: Mikkeller Beer Geek Brunch Weasel
Soundtrack: “Jump in the Line” Harry Bellafonte